SWC football getting new look

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Sunday, February 10, 2008

Nonnewaug, a first-year varsity program that went 0-10 last fall, was scheduled to spend two years on the SWC football schedule, holding a place for Oxford, which just opened its doors last fall to 270 freshmen and sophomores.

But Nonnewaug, a member of the Berkshire League in all other sports, asked permission at the end of the season to leave the SWC. It was then admitted into the Pequot Conference, where it will play against schools with similar football programs, including three other Berkshire League schools that field football teams.

Oxford, meanwhile, after going 7-3 in its SWC junior varsity schedule last fall, decided it was ready to take the leap to the varsity level a year ahead of schedule.

Lungarini said he and football coach Joe Stochmal discussed Oxford's program with athletic directors and football coaches throughout the SWC, most of whom agreed Oxford was ready to move up.

Stochmal said his players' enthusiasm and work ethic was the key to the decision.

"We had 40 kids in the weight room the Monday after the season ended," Stochmal said. "They didn't shy away from that at all. That was their attitude all season long."

Stochmal said he currently has 44 players, all freshmen and sophomores, in the program, and expects another 20-25 to come out for the team in the fall. The players currently in the program are staying after school three days a week for a study hall, followed by a weightlifting session.

"I'm not going to make any predictions if we're going to win any games," Stochmal said. "But with the work ethic these kids have shown, they're going to compete to the end of every game."

As an example, Stochmal pointed to his team's season finale against SWC powerhouse Pomperaug, whose JV team finished the season undefeated. After being blown out in the first half, Oxford played Pomperaug even in the second half.

That game was also a financial success, according to Stochmal, who noted that the visiting stands were overflowing at Pomperaug that day.

"I've heard they made over $2,000 that game," he said.

That bodes well for next season's Thanksgiving Eve game, when Oxford will again meet Pomperaug, only this time at the varsity level.

Nonnewaug's last game in the SWC was a 34-0 Thanksgiving Eve loss last November to Pomperaug. That was an all-too-typical result for Nonnewaug, the regional school for Bethlehem and Woodbury. It was shut out six times while being outscored 398-36 over the course of the season.

Nonnewaug had gone 5-5 playing a JV schedule two years ago, and Parker and then-coach Carmen Polite felt the program would be competitive against some of the teams in the SWC.

"We were hoping for two to three victories," Parker said.

Instead, the reality was that Nonnewaug was overmatched with a team that Parker said was expected to be the stronger of the two years in the SWC.

"This was supposed to be our best year," said Parker, noting that last season's team was senior-dominated, while next year's will be composed primarily of sophomores and juniors.

Not only will Nonnewaug be in a new league next fall, but it will have a new coach in former major league baseball player Rico Brogna, an all-state quarterback at Watertown High who turned down a football scholarship to Clemson to play pro baseball. Brogna is a Woodbury resident.

"He's a name that people can recognize," Parker said.

At Oxford, both Lungarini and Stochmal are confident their players won't be as overmatched as Nonnewaug's were last year. Lungarini noted the success of the relatively young football program at Woodland High in neighboring Beacon Falls, which made it to back-to-back state championship games several years after opening its doors. Like Oxford, Woodland only fielded a JV team for one year before making the jump to varsity.

"We started from a base of kids who came to us from being involved in Seymour and Masuk football, two of the top programs in the state," Lungarini said. "There was a background for these kids coming in, just as the Woodland kids coming in had a football background from Holy Cross or Sacred Heart (of Waterbury). We're building on previous knowledge."

Before coming to Oxford, Stochmal helped build Hillhouse of New Haven into a state champion.

He said the decision to go varsity wasn't made lightly.

"We took our time, we didn't want to rush into anything," Stochmal said.

"Sometimes you have to play better teams to get better," Lungarini said.

Smooth transition: Oxford is playing a JV schedule this year in every sport with the exception of sports like cross country and swimming, where there are no JV teams. In those sports, Oxford is fielding a varsity team.

"The varsity teams have been competitive, which is what we look for," Lungarini said.

Oxford's best performance has come from its cheerleading squad, which placed fourth out of 12 teams in the SWC championships. Lungarini also pointed to individual accomplishments by members of the cross country, indoor track and boys and girls swim teams.

One setback will come this spring, though, when Oxford will be unable to field tennis teams. A budget referendum to build tennis courts was voted down last year, and the school won't be able to field teams until it builds tennis courts.

"The interest is there," Lungarini said. "Hopefully, we'll get the funding for it this year."